Band: Harvey Milk

tallchris wrote:Bummed I missed their (seemingly) only Seattle show back in 2008, but hey, I wasn't even living in Seattle at the time.

I feel as closed to blessed as a man can be that I saw their one and only MPLS show at a less-than-packed Triple Rock. Total brain scrambler. Tons of fun. They played for a totally small crowd like it was the end of the world at the end of their set. Easily in my top three shows of all time.

Stephen Tanner is putting out a new album under the name Music Blues. The whole thing is streaming at decibel for free right now. Sounds pretty similar to Harvey Milk so far but it's a little different. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet but its been really good so far.

Over the years, Harvey Milk have become known for bathroom drawings on shirts that really have no direct connection to the band’s music. Tanner, who is the mastermind of these designs, reveals the process it takes to make the designs. “When it comes time to think of new T-shirts, I try to think of the most ridiculous stuff I can think of, and I call Pat [of New York City's Pollution]. We get f—ing smashed, and he laughs and draws it. He draws those things in six or seven minutes.”

One of the bands most famous designs is one of a Steven Spielberg alien drinking, smoking a joint and wearing a shirt reading ‘No Woman No Cry’ on it as the band’s name lauds over him. “That was always an inside joke,” Tanner says, explaining the root of the shirt as coming from a late night hanging out with former Melvins‘ bassist and previous Harvey Milk collaborator Joe Preston. “Joe’s got a bunch of tattoos, and he doesn’t party or anything. And we’re hanging out one night and I was f—- up, and he has some bulls— tattooed on his arm. And I was like, ‘What the f— does that mean?’ Is that ‘No Woman No Cry’ in some weird language [I] don’t know?’”

On the bands most recent tour, Tanner was shocked but is still enjoying a good laugh over the amount of fans that came to him displaying that shirt’s design tattooed on them. “The idea was to take something iconic like E.T. and apply how I hate reggae music and love Coors Light … so that’s how that goes.”

With a new album on the horizon and a summer tour being planned, Tanner has to begin thinking of new designs. “I haven’t put any thought into it,” he says. “Usually it just takes getting f—ed up and hanging out with Pat.”

Of course, not all of these drawings end up inked over top cotton, so he could always use an old one or one that most fans have never seen. “We made a small batch of these T-shirts a while back with Shaquille O’Neal holding a pizza with Ronnie James Dio in a track suit standing on the pizza,” smiled Tanner. “It’s really f—ing kick ass.”

But Tanner sometimes wonders if these designs stop them from selling more merch on the road “We’d probably do better if we didn’t do stuff that wasn’t as goofy,” he contemplated. “People look at them and think, ‘I can’t wear this bulls—.” The Harvey Milk way is not for everyone, and most of those folks aren’t really fans anyway.

offal wrote:I just want to be able to play bitchin' single-stroke rolls before I die

One of the bands most famous designs is one of a Steven Spielberg alien drinking, smoking a joint and wearing a shirt reading ‘No Woman No Cry’ on it as the band’s name lauds over him. “That was always an inside joke,” Tanner says, explaining the root of the shirt as coming from a late night hanging out with former Melvins‘ bassist and previous Harvey Milk collaborator Joe Preston. “Joe’s got a bunch of tattoos, and he doesn’t party or anything. And we’re hanging out one night and I was f—- up, and he has some bulls— tattooed on his arm. And I was like, ‘What the f— does that mean?’ Is that ‘No Woman No Cry’ in some weird language [I] don’t know?’”

I've occasionally wondered about the story behind that design; I get a lot of questions whenever I wear that shirt.

I tried out Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men once and felt like I could take it or leave it, but when I read a description of the Music Blues albums a few months ago, it made me laugh out loud. Kinda curious to hear it at some point.

madmanmunt wrote:You think Michelangelo Antonioni popped out of the womb with Monica Vitti in one hand and the reels of L'Avventura in the other?

I sort of have a holy trinity of heavy/"extreme" music...I used to listen to a lot more of it at some point, but the only stuff I still listen to on a regular, "home listening" basis is said trinity...and it goes...Neurosis...Jesu...and last but certainly not least, the Milk...

Yeah it reads like some prototypical "hipster beardo metal Adult Swim" thing but the thing is, I found, these three bands really do/did something special and intelligent with the whole "being brutally heavy" thing, not "intelligent" in the metal sense that they could play solos and blast beats in 13/6 time at 500 BPM with their dicks (though Harvey Milk did have some of that, technical profficiency I mean, and ironically out of these bands they were the ones called "hipster" the most) but that they, I don't know, were all smart and shit with their arrangements and melodies and stuff in such a way that their music can stir some actual emotions in someone who's not a metalhead or 16 years old or both...you know.

So for injecting droves of humanity to the Melvins' sludge while still keeping said band's rhythmic profficiency (something 95% of the Melvins' followers DON'T) AND humor while also adding an ever so subtle classical influence in there...the Milk get a resounding NOT CRAP from me. One of my faves.

Some cool Creston Spiers stuff here. A bunch of songs from a band called "A" he was in, some Cohen covers and a few originals. One of my favorite singers/voices period. Deep in a Harvey Milk/all things related hole right now.